Page 121 of Fly Back to Me
“Jenna held my hand, and when I felt her touch in that moment, it wasfamiliar. It drowned my judgment for asplitsecond. She moved to kiss me, but I stopped it from going any further and officially closed the door on us.I swear on my life, Olivia, it’s over.” His head wags with intention. “I’m blocking her number. I’m never going to speak to or see her again. Fuck, I’ll uproot my entire life and move ten thousand miles away from here with you if that’s what it takes.”
I shake my head against his hands, a few tears wringing from my eyes. “She gave you that ring,” I breathe out. “That ringwas hers.”
He nods through a tight swallow. “Yes.”
I try to rip myself out of his grasp, but he locks me in a rigid hold.
“Listento me,” he demands. “Jenna gave it to me when I decided to leave the bike shop and open my own business. There’s no romantic meaning behind it. There never has been.”
Adrenaline spikes through my veins, wrenching me from his palms before I’m walking toward my duffle bag. “You son of a bitch,” I grit out.
Cade’s hot on my tail. “Oh, I get it. That’s the real reason you’re so damn upset, isn’t it?” His snarky tone kicks my body around, and his arm flies in the air. “Not because of my poor judgement, but because somefuckingpiece of metal means more to you than I do.”
My lips purse as I slam two fists into his bare chest, but the force flops to budge him a centimeter. “Did you even think of me?!” I yell. I shake my head, skating my throbbing hands through my hair as I whisper, “This is all a lie. Everything I thought I knew isa lie.”
“What’s a lie?!” His posture dominates mine, his chest exhausting frustration through every word. “I’m not theperfectman you dreamed up in your mind, Olivia? Huh?”
My chin angles up on a narrowed gaze. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
He yanks his ring off his middle finger, my body jolting when he ricochets it against the bedroom wall. The tenderness in his eyes has filtered, substituted with harbored irritation before he punches a fist down between us. “I’m not somefuckingwhite knight! I amnotperfect! You wear that anklet like it’s a trophy, and as much as you cherish it, it makes me feel likewho I amisn’t good enough.”
My adrenaline shrivels as he shouts. “I told you why I woreit,” I argue.
“Yes,wore,” he says, gently bending at his knees to bring both hands to his chest. “But I’m herenow. Why is that not enough for you?”
More tears loom to spill across my cheeks, our stars straying farther away. “It’s brought me comfort. Why is there something wrong with that?”
He offers a mild shake of his head, his wounded gaze wandering over my face. “Because I need you to needme, Olivia. Not just my protection.”
“No, it doesn’t mean that’s all I need from you,” I assert.
“It does when it’s the reason you fell in love with me,” he retorts. “I missed the part where you fell in love with me, Olivia.” His forefinger points to my foot as he holds my glossy eyes. “That part was left behind on those wings. And every time I look at your anklet, I see the part of your love I’m absent of.”
No.
It’s innocent.
He’s wrong.
I wiggle my head, spinning to yank my duffle bag off the floor. “You’re just deflecting the core issue here. I’m not listening to this.”
“I could say the same about you,” he tosses, retreating backward as I pummel forward.
As soon as I sling the bag strap over my shoulder, his arm barricades the width of the door frame.
“No, come on, baby.” His free palm greets my waist, the burn of the contact just as delectable as it is agonizing. “Don’t leave like this.Please, baby, come on. Let’s just talk about this. I want to talk to you about this.” His fingers reach for my face, his voice a smothered whisper. “Just look at me, please. This isme. I haven’t changed.”
I avert my eyes from his, whisking my fingers through mybangs as I say, “I want to go.”
“You’re really going to do this?” he asks, his tone frayed. “After everything we’ve been through, after everything we’ve overcome,thisis how you’re going to leave?”
My stomach crunches in anguish, famished from the abrupt feud that launches us on two different planets. We stand an inch away from each other, but the line sketched between us thickens with every tortured breath.
And it occurs to me that the distance between us is longer than it ever was. A distance I created with all the winding roads I paved along the journey.
Me and me alone.
Maybethisis the very thing about fate. You don’t fuck around with it. And my oh my, have I fiddled with all the bolts and screws fastened into this machine.
